Posted by Sarah & Trent at 10:40 AM 7 comments  

Yes, this post may not have much of a theme... but there are a few things that need to be seen and written you see! Let me tell you a bit about this crazy last week. I signed up for a triathlon before I knew we were moving~ sooooo we made it work! We buzzed down to the Desert Grande Triathlon early in the am before taking off for the move. Here I am flexing with the ladies~ I swear we were all "going to show the muscles". Tammy and Bonnie, such good friends! I will miss them-- they're just a hoot! I already miss them. All I can say is that they do service with a big SMILE, and I was always the beneficiary. We had some fun morning runs~ keep up the good work girls, go get 'em on the next one! And come visit us, like right after or something. Our kids will still have to get married you know.

I love Rowan's face in this picture. And I love how I'm posing like I'm in a body-building contest or something... Bonnie and me, the nursing triathletes!

My time was exactly 1:20~ I was happy! I have to hand it to Tammy's amazing road bike though, I would've taken an hour longer if I'd had to use my mountain bike. AND if I didn't have those rockin' spandex with the padding. Super sahweeeet! THANK YOU thank you!!! I was laughing here at the end of the run because I was racing some dude. The ENTIRE run he would sprint by me and then walk for a while. It was driving me nuts. So for the last little stretch I asked him if he wanted to race. Suckaaaaa! Well I think I almost beat him.

Then.... we drove and unpacked. I will spare you the view of the mayhem of boxes, but here's the new place AFTER the mess: you'll see we added some additional travel photos in frames...

A nice little new lamp... ooh!

Some nice harvest decor... ooh!

Our own little library and weight room... ooh! ooh!

And a happy baby right after his luxurious Roman-tub bath. We're all quite enjoying the new place! Oh, and p.s... Rowan finally has his own room (It's a work in progress, more to come).

Now that we've done months 1-6 in the white onesie, I figured for the second half of the year, we'd add in some variety of different locations and outfits. Try to keep your excitement contained! I know you'll be on the edge of your seat waiting to see what's next on Dec. 13th!!

Blue Steel~

And finally... the cousins are back together again!! Nicki, Natalie, and I have taken the famous cuz picture since we were all wee tiny babies like Rowan. Now we've all landed in the same town and it was so fun to have dinner together. We decided we're going to gather up all the years of pictures and make a slide show for our next event. ha!

Posted by Sarah & Trent at 8:32 PM 8 comments  

Don't judge the lack of creativity with this post... :) Just wanted to get some pictures on here!


Remember Rowan's darling Newsies outfit? We decided to make it the theme for one of our Halloween celebrations... Trent happened to find the exact hat and vest to match! This was our third year at the annual ward Halloween party~ it's definitely THE place to be.

I always love to make dinner in a pumpkin in October... so I brought it along to carve pumpkins at the Mortleys'! I think it needed a bit longer in the oven~ it was a little too hard still. Sorry guys. But the casserole mixture inside was tasty!

Baby's First Halloween shirt for Rowan and orange jacket for me from Nana... cute!

Marshall and Amanda~ thanks, it was so fun! We probably wouldn't have thought about carving pumpkins without your inspiration.

The Zwygarts working hard on their masterpieces...

Rowan and I got to visit Trent up at work on the day before Halloween~ we were Hawaiian tourists with a mosquito. What you can't see: Trent's white socks with flip-flops.

Remember those Zwygarts? Just LOOK at these darling pictures they took when they watched Rowan for me while I taught my class. Love love love 'em!

Those cheeks are going to pop!

And speaking of crazy hair...this is a picture of Rowan's fantastic first haircut, by Andrea~ brought on by my attempt to trim his mullet fringe. Thanks for saving the day girl! It looks great and nicely blended now. :) And I love my hair too.

We're moving! I guess in an attempt to stay a bit private, you'll have to email me to find out where if you don't know. :) I guess you'll find out soon enough. Rowan is loving the open space now that the apartment is all cleared out. Even though I laid out big blankets, he still rolls right off onto the carpet. Oh well! We're having fun, as you can see!

He's never seen such a clean, open place! He's not quite sure what to do.

A great big huge THANK YOU to all of you kind, dear souls that helped load up the truck. We've accumulated a lot of stuff in 5 years (...and I took a carful to Goodwill). You are fantastic friends!! And THANK YOU to those of you unloading the truck. May blessings be on your heads, and may your biceps have a little more bulge from the great workout. :)

Posted by Sarah & Trent at 3:03 PM 11 comments  

Last Friday we woke up with an itch for some cool weather. It was getting cooler in Phoenix (it was even coming close to chilling temperatures like 95), but we didn’t think it was cold enough for us. So, what would any normal person who wants a little cooler fall weather do? Jump on a plane that very day and head to New York City.

To get us in the mood for New York we watched a non-fiction drama based on the New York called “Chicago”. After finishing that, I understood why the Olympics were going to Rio, but couldn’t figure out what it had to do with New York. So, we watched another non-fiction documentary called, “West Side Story.” This one made more sense. As soon as we got off the plane, people were snapping their fingers and singing about how they felt pretty, oh so pretty.

We jumped onto the subway and took off to Harlem to visit some amazing friends, Noah and Allison Riley. Harlem is nothing like the Globetrotters lead you to believe, but we still enjoyed it. Noah and Allison were the most incredible hosts; they fed us, guided us, entertained us, and I’m sure they would have bathed us if I had asked.

After spending a lot of the night chatting it up, we got up a little on the late side and went out to see the sights and famous people. At our first stop, we did run into a few movie stars…let’s see if you recognize them and can guess where we are at:

Yep, you’re right, we were at the Late Night Show with David Letterman.

OK, we weren’t. We were at the Museum of Natural History or as Sarah likes to call it, the Natural Museum of History. Though we were unable to capture it, Rowan was laughing and giggling the whole 3 hours. He didn’t fuss at all, he was just wide-eyed and amazed.

Here Sarah is showing Rowan how birds eat out of their mother’s mouth and then she got upset when Rowan tried it.

While I would have preferred to visit the Museum at Night when Dick Van Dyke comes to life, it was still a blast during the day. We then decided to brave the cold and meet up with Trever and Carah. Guess who eats together at the Carnegie Deli:

That was one awesome Reuben. Rowan even enjoyed looking at it but not as much as he did this piece of New York Cheesecake:

It was delicious, to say the least. We left feeling very full and very happy.

We then traveled to the Brooklyn Bridge. Pretty impressive. Sarah was jealous of all the people that were running the bridge.

It was then on to Ground Zero. We tagged along with a little tour group and learned some facts about the construction of the Freedom Tower and what the plans are for the open space.

We then went to Staten Island Ferry and Battery Park to try to catch an evening glimpse of the Statue of Liberty.

We met up with Noah and Allison in the Park and they took us on a tour around the Wall Street area. Here’s a good lookin’ bunch of Aggies:

From there we went to Times Square and enjoyed the lights.

Rowan must have been looking at one huge piece of cheesecake covered in lights:

Speaking of cheesecake, we stopped by Juniors and at a tasty meal topped off with some more cheesecake. Carah dominated that:

We finished up the night watching ice skaters at Rockerfeller Plaza.

We then headed back to the Riley’s. We talked to Carah and Trever about going to church in the morning before going out to more sights, but we ended up sleeping in and went to a later church with Noah and Allison.

In 1899, the streets of New York echoed with the voices of Newsies. Peddeling the papers of Joseph Pulitizer, William Randolph Hearst, and other giants of the newspaper world. On every corner you heard them carrying the banner. Bringing you the news for a penny a pape. Poor orphans and runaways, the newsies were a ragged army, withour a leader. Until one day, all that changed:

Rowan does make a cute Newsie. We forced him to see enough papes to pay for the trip. Due to the recession, he wasn’t able to sell any and wasn’t able to procure any government bailout money. But the people at church still thought he was cute. Church was exciting in Harlem, we thoroughly enjoyed it.

After Church, if I recall, we took a stroll through Central Park in fall. Sarah tore her dress, what a mess… It was just like that song by Wayne Gretzky.

It was a lovely day to stroll through Central Park. Rowan slept the whole time.

We then popped in to FAO Schwarz and, once again, Rowan was wide-eyed and excited. He kept reaching for everything. It was a lot of fun. Sarah and Rowan got to play on the BIG piano.

Sarah was super excited over some dollhouses and little props designed to steal people’s money without them thinking they are being robbed.

They had a huge Lego statue of Andre the Giant with a beard being led by three hobbitses.

We then met up with Trever and Carah again and headed to the Riley’s for the most delicious butternut squash lasagna. It was so awesome. We then rolled our full bellies to the couches and chatted for the rest of the night.

The next day, Rowan, Sarah and I were going to go to Palmyra and Niagara Falls and then on to North Carolina to visit Sarah’s aunt Marcie, but ended up loving the Laguardia airport so much that we decided we would spend the whole day there. Flights were cancelled, we were kicked off flights, other flights were full. So, we read some well written books that required intense concentration:

We had such a great time trying to figure out how we were going to get out of New York that we decided to head back to Phoenix with Trever and Carah who showed up in the afternoon.

Rowan had a great time on the flights. I have really never seen/heard a baby do so well. We have been blessed with a traveler.

Back in Phoenix, Trever and Carah’s last flight to Salt Lake was overbooked, so they spent the night at our place and took off the next day.

All-in-all, we had a blast. The trip may have been short, but with the Riley’s and Trever and Carah who wouldn’t have had a good time. Big thanks to the Riley's for all the hospitality and fun! New York was a blast! Not a blast like the one Chino gives Tony for wearing too tight of pants and jumping and snapping better than he can, but a blast like a good time. Jets and Sharks forever.

Posted by tp at 2:16 PM 10 comments  

And Mr. Studly was kind enough to hold the little sign juuuuust right for momma to take some more darling pictures. As you can see, everything goes right in the mouth.

Love that belly hangin' over...

Bathtime is already starting to be Rowan's favorite time of the day. Although he didn't love being in that basket, I still thought it was a pretty cute picture! But he sure enjoys splashing around- lying on his back in a couple inches of water, and playing with the bath toys. Now that he can sit up it makes it a lot easier to clean under that double chin roll of his.

It can get pretty dirty under there, you know.

And can you believe how these boys are growing up so fast?!! This is the Arizona chapter of the USU girls' tennis team. I feel we have a pretty great representation. And aren't they just beauuuutiful pregnant ladies?

I have to say, I do enjoy watching Rowan as he's entertained by other kids. He's so mellow~ he can just chill and be content to watch new faces and see what's going to happen next! My mom says that when I was a baby, I wasn't very snuggly~ and that's definitely the case with Rowan too. He just wants to go go go! He's always excited to get in the car seat because he knows there's an adventure ahead. His little 6-month-old personality is definitely shining through~ ohhhhh how we love this little man. :)

Posted by Sarah & Trent at 1:05 PM 8 comments  

Rowan has been enjoying some high adventure-style livin'.

I'm sure that Rowan was studying Amy's fantastic wakeboarding techniques here. And I think he laughed a little bit at my skills. It was so fun! Thanks for having us Amy, Landon, and Tony!

Rowan also got to see his first pro baseball game!
It was SWEET to be up in the suite at the Diamondbacks game.

Love those ears...

And we loved this food. mmmmm-- Bruschetta has to be my favorite thing!

And Trent's favorite thing is wings. We were set!

Rowan also got to see his first USU homecoming game! It was a beautiful day and he loved looking at all the people. He also loved the Goodyear blimp. And our Aggies won! Woo ooo

Posted by Sarah & Trent at 10:49 AM 3 comments  

Rowan is sitting up! He still topples over a bit sometimes, but he's getting stronger.

And here's his sweet little grin. This picture was free! They thought they'd break me down and make me buy tons of packages, but sorry no-- I'm just a freeloader I guess. So grandmas, I scanned this pic for you and downloaded it into the CostCo pictures!

And get ready for this... Rowan has a passport!! This is his hilarious picture...

Posted by Sarah & Trent at 12:22 PM 6 comments  

Rowan is rolling over just about EVERY time we put him down. Just look at this cutie!

Posted by Sarah & Trent at 5:31 PM 9 comments  

Posted by tp at 6:41 AM 11 comments  

So here are the boys enjoying their show-- Trent decided that since Rowan's belly is a little round, it's time for him to start training for his big debut someday on the show. He needs to be fit and agile to win us that $50,000.

He will make us proud someday!

Here is Rowan assisting his momma with her half-marathon training preparation. He sure enjoyed those squats in the Baby Bjorn. He was grinning and laughing- jumping off my legs!

Whoa! There she goes! Speedy Gonzales! Not really. :)

BeforeAfter-- are we working him too hard?Swimming training~ and most importantly, wet t-shirt contest preparation.

Posted by Sarah & Trent at 1:13 PM 9 comments